There have been a variety of exhaust units designed and manufactured for filtering exhaust air from cooking apparatus and discharging the filtered exhaust air out of the unit. These exhaust units may be fixed or portable, and have been manufactured for exhausting the exhaust fumes discharged by cooking apparatus which utilize natural gas or electricity to produce the desired heat.
Such exhaust units have either utilized air ducts which direct the exhaust fumes outside of the building, or have directed the exhaust fumes through a filtering system and recirculated the filtered exhaust fumes back into the existing building.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,161 teaches an air filter provided for food cooking apparatus to avoid the necessity for venting within the building, and permitting the use of free-standing, independently moveable structures capable of receiving a moveable cooking apparatus.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,786 teaches a method and apparatus for cooking foods which method includes the steps of directing an air sheet across the top of the cooking machine. Other arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,040 which relates to a moveable, self-contained exhaust unit for filtering exhaust air for cooking apparatus.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,889,581 illustrates a duct system for conducting grease containing vapours from a cooking stove.
Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,954,427 discloses a free standing cooking fume and odour collecting or ventilating unit which is adapted to be positioned adjacent a cooking surface.
However, as cooking appliances and facilities, particularly those used in the fast food industry, are being introduced into hospitals, stadiums, office buildings, and shopping plazas, the ventilation of exhaust fumes discharged from such equipment is becoming a critical factor when investigating the feasibility of potential site locations. For example, multi-storey structures sometimes require expensive duct work and fire-rated shafts while existing buildings may not have roof-top exhaust capabilities. Also, the installation of traditional venting equipment in a multi-storey building is time-consuming and costly. Indeed, institutional sites, such as hospitals, usually may not provide adequate ventilation or roof top access and construction design suitable for installation of exhaust equipment. Moreover, historical sites often do not allow the installation of exterior exhaust equipment. Furthermore, in other locations, multi-restaurant applications may require a single source exhaust and create numerous balancing problems.
In addition, national, regional, and local building codes are becoming more stringent, while environmental standards are being up-graded to require clean exhaust air.
Moreover, there has been an increased desire to provide cooking facility sites in kiosks in shopping plazas or the like. Accordingly the ventilation of exhaust fumes also becomes an important consideration in such facilities.
In certain sites the cooking equipment, as well as the ventilation equipment, must be located within buildings which may only have three foot access doors, thereby creating difficulties for introducing such equipment into the available space.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved exhaust unit which is versatile in application. More particularly it is an object of this invention to provide an exhaust unit which has a modular design that is easily transportable, and easily assembled to operate as a single unit in a variety of configurations for a variety of applications.
An aspect of this invention relates to an exhaust unit for filtering air from an exhaust hood above cooking equipment comprising modular components including an exhaust hood, filtering means and blower means operating as a single unit regardless of configuration.
Another aspect of this invention relates to an exhaust unit for filtering air from an exhaust hood above cooking apparatus comprising: a housing having a passage therethrough with an air inlet and an air outlet communicating with said passage; removable filter means disposed with such passage for filtering said air; blower means associated with said passage for drawing said air through said inlet and said passage, and discharging said air out said air outlet; where said housing is selectively connected to said exhaust hood in a variety of configurations.
Another aspect of this invention relates to an exhaust unit assembly for filtering exhaust air from electrical cooking equipment comprising: a housing having spaced top and bottom walls, vertically upstanding spaced front and back walls, and vertically upstanding spaced left and right hand walls defining said housing; a passage through said housing; an air inlet and an air outlet presented by said housing for communication with said passage; removable filter means disposed within said passage for filtering said exhaust air; blower means associated with said passage for drawing said exhaust air through said inlet and said passage, and out said air outlet; a vertically upstanding air wall enclosure communicating with said housing; an exhaust hood above said cooking equipment, said exhaust hood connected to said air wall enclosure and communicating with said air inlet of said housing for drawing exhaust air from said hood through said inlet of said housing through said passage for discharge through said air outlet, where said exhaust hood and said air wall enclosure are selectively connected to said housing in a plurality of configurations.